(i) Technical Field
The present invention relates to a discharge device and an image forming apparatus.
(ii) Related Art
A discharge device in the related art discharges a paper to a discharged part while guiding the paper with a guide, and discharges the paper to the discharged part byway of a discharge mechanism. Such a discharge device is included in an image forming apparatus or the like. In an image forming apparatus in the related art, a toner image is formed on a photoreceptor drum on which a latent image is optically formed, the toner image is primarily transferred onto a transfer belt, and the primary transferred image on the transfer belt is secondarily transferred onto a paper. Then, the secondary transfer image on the paper is fixed on the paper, and the paper is discharged to a discharged part outside the apparatus by way of a discharge device.
In this way, in an image forming apparatus in the related art, when a paper is discharged to a discharged part outside the image forming apparatus, the front end of the paper, which is not stiff enough, may sag and curl in the paper discharge direction, thus causing storage failure of papers. In order to prevent such storage failure, a paper is waved in a direction orthogonal to the paper discharge direction by a discharge mechanism to discharge the paper on which a protrusion corrugation is formed. The paper with a corrugation formed thereon may come into contact with a guide and generate scratch noise.